An Investigation of Love
by julespena
Summary: Bella Swan escaped her controlling stepfather by moving to Forks to live with Charlie. Little does she know that the actions of her stepfather will follow her wherever she goes as the Cullen Family of private investigators is assigned to gather information about the actions and crimes of her stepfather through Bella. Will the family's personal feelings about Bella get in the way?


A shadowy figure scurried quickly through an alley, glancing side to side to make sure no one was following. "Why did I ever agree to do this?" the figure groaned inwardly. After a short distance they stepped into a pool of light coming off a street lamp overhead. There it revealed a girl, small and slim with almost a pixie like quality, with spiky black hair that pointed out in every direction. She paused, checking her watch for the time. "Where is he?" she whispered to herself impatiently.

Suddenly, a loud screeching sound is heard up ahead as a dark coloured car turns onto the street, heading towards the waiting girl. It slows as it approaches, the driver's window rolling down to reveal a huge man with a lopsided grin and kind eyes. "Oh hey there little sis, fancy seeing you here." he snickered quietly into his hand. "Emmett, you're 10 minutes late, you idiot. What if someone had seen me?" the girl snapped, squinting her eyes at the hulking figure in the car. "Oh come on Alice, its late! No one is out and about, and besides you're so tiny its not like anyone would have noticed you anyways". Alice threw him a murderous glance as she walked around the car and opened the passenger door. "Just wait till I tell Rosalie that you were late, I bet she would be really curious as to what held you up." she said menacingly, although her face had a playful quality that undermined her attempt to be intimidating. "As if." Emmett brushed her comment aside with a wave of his hand but didn't continue his playful banter with his sister, instead turning his tone more serious. "Did you get what you were looking for?" he asked as he navigated the vehicle towards their home. "Yes, but I don't know how much help its going to be." The car grew quiet as they headed home, both full of thoughts of how they ended up here, and what was next to come.

_BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. _The sound of an alarm clock sliced through the air as Bella Swan groggily raised her hand and hit the snooze button with force. She rolled out of bed groaning inwardly as she remembered where she was and what today meant. Here in her new home in Forks, Washington was her first day at a new school. Bella padded quietly into the bathroom, blinking rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the light. She stared at herself in the mirror, seeing herself as she always did: plain. It wasn't like she was ugly, in fact many people would have thought her pale skin, long chocolate brown eyes and matching, cascading hair was quite an attractive combination. She stepped into the shower, turning the water as hot as her skin would tolerate, willing herself to forget where she was and why she was here. Imagining those painful memories swirl down the drain. For the past 17 years of her life Bella had lived with her mother in Arizona, being the responsible and dutiful daughter. Last year her mother met a man and fell in love. Once their marriage was official things took a turn for the worse. Tony, her mother Carla's husband had seemed nice enough when they first met. Slowly this started to change as he began to exact more and more control over her mother and attempted to do the same with Bella. There was always something about Tony that made her uncomfortable, his secretive demeanor, and the shady people he surrounded himself with. Unable to handle it anymore Bella decided to leave to live with her father in Forks, racked with guilt at leaving her mother with the man she both loathed and feared. It wasn't like Bella hadn't tried to persuade Carla to leave him, but she would not even consider the possibility, assuring Bella that things will get better. She shuddered at the thought of her mother alone in the house with Bob, but Carla was an adult and had to make her own choices, regardless of whether or not they were the right ones.

After quickly getting dressed and heading downstairs, Bella met her father Charlie in their small kitchen, quietly eating breakfast before his shift down at the police station. "Hey kiddo, are you excited for your first day of school?" Charlie asked with a warm smile. "Yes I am." Bella lied, willing her face to make the semblance of a grin. The truth was Bella wasn't the type of person that made friends easily. She was shy and timid; nervous around people she didn't know. The thought of being the new girl at a high school as small as the one in Forks filled her with dread, knowing that she would stand out like a sore thumb. Bella tried to push these thoughts away as she finished her breakfast and quickly kissed Charlie on the cheek before heading out the door. "I'll have dinner made when you get home," she called over her shoulder, smiling to herself as she thought of Charlie handling domestic duties on his own. Bella pulled herself up into the cab of her ancient truck, rubbing her hands together praying that it would start. With a turn of the key the engine wheezed to life and Bella was on her way.

By the time Bella made it to the school the parking lot was already full and there were several students milling around outside. Bella cursed her truck for its unrelenting volume as heads began to turn and watch her find a place in the school parking lot. After taking a few deep breaths to calm herself before she headed to the lion's den that was high school, Bella clumsily stumbled out of her truck, wishing she had the grace that seemed to come naturally to everyone but her. With her head down and eyes straight ahead, Bella marched towards the office to pick up her schedule, praying that the people watching her would forget about her as soon as she was out of sight. Once her schedule was picked up and she was directed to her locker, Bella was ready to endure what she was sure would be a long day.

After consulting the map that the secretary kindly provided her, Bella headed towards her first class, groaning at the fact that she had math first thing in the morning. She was so distracted worrying about whether or not the teacher was going to make her stand up in front of the class and introduce herself she didn't notice the figure standing in the middle of the hall until she collided with it, spilling the contents in her arms all over the hallway. "I am so so sorry!" Bella said, wishing the floor would swallow her whole. Looking down at the ground she saw pale, long, slender hands collecting her books for her off the ground. Her eyes followed the hands, noticing they were attached to well-defined arms, moving up towards the face of the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. Bella's mouth went dry as she stared into the green eyes of her hallway blockade. He smiled a tiny, crooked smile as he handed her her books, running the other hand through his messy bronze locks. "You must be Bella Swan, I'm Edward Cullen." the boy said simply as he extended his hand to shake hers. Bella blinked a few times, realizing that she was supposed to reply. "Uh… yeah… that's me, sorry for running into you" she replied as she gently shook Edward's hand, trying to ignore the butterflies that the contact of his skin gave her. Edward laughed quietly as he withdrew his hand. "Well I better get going to class, it was nice to meet you." he said politely as he started to make his way down the hall. All Bella could do was stare at his retreating figure, playing their encounter over and over in her head until the warning bell snapped her out of her daydream. She quickly turned and headed off to class, hoping that the incident in the hallway was the only embarrassing thing to happen to her today.

Edward stopped walking as soon as he was out of Bella's sight. He took out his cellphone and rapidly punched in a phone number, impatiently waiting as it rang. "Hello?" the voice on the other end answered. "Hey its Alice, its me," Edward replied. "First contact has been made with the subject." "Jeeze Edward, don't make it sound so cold and professional," Alice laughed. "How are you going to get close to her and gain her trust if you can't even refer to her by name?" Edward rolled his eyes and shut the phone. Leaning against the wall he closed his eyes and thought through his plan of action. He hadn't expected to be so stricken by her, he sighed as he remembered her deep brown eyes. He hoped his attraction for her wouldn't complicate things. The plan was simple, get close to Bella and in turn get closer to finding out information on her horrible stepfather. Coming from a family of private investigators Edward knew that this job was important and he wasn't about to let some stupid crush get in the way of that. He shook his head as he started down the hallway once more, flexing his hand as though he could still feel the warmth of Bella against his palm.


End file.
